Zugl.: Bochum, Universiẗat, Diss., 2002.

Sappho, à la charnière des VIIe et VIe siècles avant Jésus-Christ, affirmait que l'écriture rend immortel : « Mais tu mourras et tu seras gisante et personne jamais n'aura de toi un jour ni souvenance ni désir. Car tu n'as pas eu en partage les roses de Piérie ». Les poétesses grecques qui lui ont succédé, premières voix féminines que l'histoire nous a conservées, ont à leur tour cueilli les roses des Muses, auxquelles elles furent comparées. Mais que reste-t-il de cette « souvenance », quelles formes a-t-elle empruntées et quels présupposés – ou quels « désirs » – la sous-tendent ? Hormis les nombreuses éditions de textes récentes des poétesses, les rares travaux existants ne démontent pas les rouages de leur réception et portent essentiellement sur la période antique ; or, les études diachroniques sur la réception de Sappho ont montré à quel point les lectures successives en avaient déformé les traits. C'est encore plus évident pour les poétesses car, dès l'Antiquité, deux choix entrent en concurrence quand on parle d'elles : on les regroupe en fonction des formes littéraires qu'elles privilégient ou, plus souvent, en fonction de leur sexe. Nous avons cherché à savoir pourquoi, en nous focalisant sur les moments cruciaux de la naissance puis de la renaissance des poétesses, dans les pays qui les ont découvertes. Aux questions traditionnelles de la philologie (attribution, transmission, corruption) s'ajoutent donc des problématiques sur la question de la place des femmes dans le champ littéraire (quels genres peuvent-elles pratiquer ?, quelle était leur audience ?). / Sappho, who lived between the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. stated that writing could ensure immortality: “but you will die and you will lie dead, and no one will ever remember or long for you, for you did not obtain the roses of Pieria”. The Greek female poets who followed her, among the first female voices that have come down to us, next gathered the roses of the Muses, to whom they were compared. But what has remained of this remembrance, what forms has it taken, and based on what expectations? Aside from the many recent editions of the texts of these poets, the rare studies that exist have focused on Antiquity. However, diachronic studies of the reception of Sappho have shown that the reading of her work has changed. This is even clearer in the case of the later poets: since Antiquity, they have been grouped together either in terms of the literary forms they adopted or, more often, in terms of their sex. This study attempts to understand why, by focusing on the reception of the Greek female poets in the ancient world and in the countries that later rediscovered them. In addition to the traditional philological questions (attribution, transmission, corruption) it examines the issue of the place of women in literature (the literary genres they could adopt, their audience).

Dans sa quête de l’épouse idéale, Panurge, le héros du Tiers Livre, incarne un siècle de débats sur le mariage. Entre les années 1540 et la décennie 1630, en pleine « querelle des femmes », juristes, médecins ou écrivains prennent la plume pour louer ou dénoncer le mariage. C’est la femme, de nature acariâtre, qui est accusée de mettre en péril l’union conjugale. Plus largement, le topos de la mégère interroge l’autorité masculine et le rôle de l’épouse dans le foyer. La recrudescence supposée des uxoricides conduit dans le même temps à une dénonciation des violences conjugales. Le mariage est l’affaire de tous : c’est pourquoi la mauvaise épouse devient le thème central de productions aussi diverses que les poèmes satiriques, les canards sanglants, ou les traités juridiques. La lecture croisée de ces sources permet de mieux appréhender le rôle du courant misogame dans la réforme de la pensée matrimoniale et l’évolution du statut de la femme mariée au début de l’Époque moderne. / In his quest for the ideal wife, Panurge, the hero of the Tiers Livre, embodies a century of debates about marriage. Between the 1540’ and the 1630’, throughout the "querelle des femmes", lawyers, doctors or writers pick up a pen to praise or denounce marriage. It is the woman, shrewish-natured, who is accused of endangering the conjugal union. Broadly speaking, the shrew's topos calls into questions the masculine authority and the role of the wife at home. At the same time, the supposed resurgence of domestic crimes leads to a denunciation of conjugal violence. Marriage is a shared concern: that’s why, the evil wife becomes the key theme of productions as varied as satirical poems, “canards sanglants”, or law books. The comparative reading of these sources is helpful for understanding the role of misogamous stream in the reform of matrimonial thought and the evolution of wife’s status in early modern time.

This dissertation examines the poetry of Isabella Whitney, a maidservant in London, Veronica Franco, a Venetian courtesan, Marie de Romieu, a baker's daughter in rural France, and Aemilia Lanyer, the daughter and wife of Italian immigrant musicians in London, all of whom attempted to create communities of learned and literary women within their texts. In their works, all four women boldly reject the misogyny prevalent in early modern culture; however, they do so without being able to withdraw from the culture that contributed to such rhetoric, thereby writing from the periphery. In her essay, "Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness," bell hooks identifies this position on the edge as one of opportunity. She argues that the very presence of the Other "within the culture of domination" is in itself a threat. As such, existing on the margins of that culture is unsafe and requires a "community of resistance" to turn that space into "a site of radical possibility." I argue that these four writers, marginalized by virtue of their sex as well as by their social positions, were united in a community of resistance through their participation in the querelle des femmes, a centuries-long debate about women's place in society. Each recognizes class, gender, and geographical hierarchies as social constructions and presents her own imagined resistant community of women within her work--each authorizing her own voice as they collectively rewrite women's history. As an international community of resistance, the works of these women may be seen as prefiguring contemporary debates about gender, community, and globalization. By examining the early modern querelle des femmes through the lens of postmodern feminism, this dissertation shows that, despite all of the historical models that position early modern European women as physically, politically, historically, and legally subordinate within their respective cultures, there existed a women's community of resisstance that not only refused to accept this inferior status but also recognized education and cooperation as a source of power.

Vers 1460, le Triunfo de las donas que Juan Rodríguez del Padrón avait composé vingt ans plus tôt à la cour de Jean II de Castille fut traduit par Fernando de Lucena à la cour de Philippe III de Bourgogne : il s’agit vraisemblablement de la première traduction du castillan vers le français. Le traducteur ne fit que satisfaire à la requête d’un de ses amis, Vasco Queimado de Villalobos, originaire, comme lui, du Portugal et attiré en Bourgogne par la duchesse Isabelle, fille du roi du Portugal, Jean Ier, et troisième épouse de Philippe le Bon. La première partie de la thèse propose une étude de l’œuvre suivant différentes perspectives : la compréhension textuelle du Triunfo de las donas à la lumière de la biographie et des œuvres de l’auteur ainsi que du contexte historique, politique et culturel de la Castille sous Jean II, la diffusion du Triumphe des dames en Bourgogne et en France aux xve et xvie siècles, l’insertion de l’œuvre dans la mouvance des débats culturels contemporains, dont la Querelle des Femmes. La seconde partie propose une édition critique bilingue et en miroir du Triunfo de las donas et du Triumphe des dames précédée de l’apparat critique et de l’analyse comparative de la traduction avec le texte original. / Around 1460, the Triunfo de las donas, composed by Juan Rodríguez del Padrón twenty years earlier at the court of John II of Castile, was translated by Fernando de Lucena in the court of Philip III of Burgundy. This is probably the first Castilian translation into French. The translator was only satisfying the request of one of his friends, Vasco Queimado de Villalobos, a native, like himself, of Portugal and brought to Burgundy by the Duchess Isabelle, daughter of the king of Portugal, King John, and third wife of Philip the Good. The first part of the thesis proposes a study of the work following different perspectives : the textual understanding of the Triunfo de las donas in the light of the biography and works of the author and the historical, political and cultural Castile under John II, the diffusion of the Triumphe des dames in Burgundy and France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the insertion of the work in the circle of influence of contemporary cultural debate, the Querelle des Femmes. The second part offers a critical edition bilingual and mirroring of the Triunfo de las donas and the Triumphe des dames preceded by the apparatus criticus and the comparative analysis of the translation with the original text.

This dissertation explores the significance of Queen Esther in early modern England by examining her literary representations in light of historical, religious, political, and social contexts. Although she is often linked to Deborah and Judith, Esther’s multifaceted character allows for greater flexibility in representation than is the case with other biblical heroines. The differing aspects of her character – obedient orphan, beautiful virgin, clever and courageous queen, savior of Diaspora Jews – inspire multiple, at times even contradictory, depictions of Esther in early modern literature. Whether Protestant or Catholic, male or female, Queen or commoner, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English writers appropriate Esther in ways that paradoxically challenge and support women’s traditional roles in society. Chapter One introduces the Esther narrative as presented in the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Chapter Two examines Esther in relation to female authority, focusing specifically on references to Queen Elizabeth as an Esther figure. Chapter Three studies the dramatic interlude Godly Queen Hester, while Chapter Four analyzes works of prose featuring Esther as an exemplum for virtuous and heroic women. Chapter Five studies poetic depictions of Esther, and Chapter Six concludes the study by noting briefly how women authors engaged in the querelle des femmes enlist Esther to refute their opponents.

Ben Jonson wrote Volpone when England's pamphlet wars and the rule of Queen Elizabeth I contributed to an environment in which the "woman question" was forefront in many minds. These social concerns echo in Volpone, resulting in a play that not only deals with vices and greed, but that also, to a limited degree, contributes to the querelle de femmes. The play's numerous animal metaphors create distinctions between characters; among other things, animalistic surnames represent the vices and complexities of humanity, and, more specifically, reverberate with judgments that seem to underscore the injustices of misogynistic pamphleteers. Moreover, Jonson's characters Bonario and Celia represent the ideal images of manhood and womanhood and are armed with various virtues that allow them to overcome trials. Ultimately, when read in the context of the Early Modern pamphlet wars, Volpone's animal metaphors form a conservative defense of women that condemns misogyny and advocates a partnership between virtuous men and women for the sake of moral social order.

La collaboration de Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) avec le librettiste Philippe Quinault (1635–1688) fut exceptionnellement féconde et on a à disposition, aujourd’hui, onze opéras de ces auteurs. La question de la construction de l’image de la femme dans les tragédies en musique de Jean-Baptiste Lully et de Philippe Quinault se pose quand on perçoit que dans ces opéras, ce sont principalement des femmes qui sont en centre de l’action et qui influencent le plus cette dernière. Des éléments très divers ont pesé sur la conception des personnages dans l’œuvre de Quinault et de Lully : des sources mythologiques et littéraires, des concepts de la philosophie et de la théorie de la musique, des idées de l’esthétique ainsi que des normes de la poétique. Mais aussi les débats sur la nature de la femme et l’ordre des sexes, qui étaient au centre de la querelle des femmes, qui fut un débat de philosophes et écrivains qui a duré du Moyen Age jusqu’au 18e siècle, exercèrent une influence non négligeable sur la création des personnages dans l’opéra. Cette thèse analyse ces influences, montre leurs effets sur la construction des personnages féminins et présente pour la première fois une véritable typologie des personnages dans les tragédies en musique de Jean-Baptiste Lully et de Philippe Quinault. / The collaboration of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) and the librettist Philippe Quinault (1635–1688) was remarkably productive and resulted in eleven tragédies en musique. Envisioning that in most of these operas female characters are put in the centre of the plot and have the greatest impact on the action, leads to the question of the conception of the female image in the tragédie en musique. Most different influences affected the creation of the characters in the opus of Quinault and Lully: mythological and literary sources, various concepts of music philosophy and music theory, multiple aesthetic ideas as well as poetic norms. Furthermore the debates about the nature of women and the order of the sexes, which were the main topics of the French querelle des femmes since the 14th century, had a distinct influence on the conception of the opera characters. This thesis analyses these different influences and shows their impact on the construction of female characters and for the first time presents a consistent typology of the characters in the tragédie en musique of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Philippe Quinault.

Ben Jonson wrote Volpone when England's pamphlet wars and the rule of Queen Elizabeth I contributed to an environment in which the woman question was forefront in many minds. These social concerns echo in Volpone, resulting in a play that not only deals with vices and greed, but that also, to a limited degree, contributes to the querelle de femmes. The play's numerous animal metaphors create distinctions between characters; among other things, animalistic surnames represent the vices and complexities of humanity, and, more specifically, reverberate with judgments that seem to underscore the injustices of misogynistic pamphleteers. Moreover, Jonson's characters Bonario and Celia represent the ideal images of manhood and womanhood and are armed with various virtues that allow them to overcome trials. Ultimately, when read in the context of the Early Modern pamphlet wars, Volpone's animal metaphors form a conservative defense of women that condemns misogyny and advocates a partnership between virtuous men and women for the sake of moral social order.

This dissertation explores how the mythological heroines from Ovid‘s Heroides and Metamorphoses were cataloged, conflated, reconceived, and recontextualized in vernacular literature; in so doing, it joins considerations of voice, authority, and gender with reflections on Tudor technologies of textual reproduction and ideas about the book. In the late medieval and Renaissance eras, Ovid‘s poetry stimulated the imaginations of authors ranging from Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower to Isabella Whitney, William Shakespeare, and Michael Drayton. Ovid‘s characteristic bookishness—his interest in textual revision and his thematization of the physicality and malleability of art in its physical environments—was not lost upon these postclassical interpreters who engaged with his polysemous cast of female characters. His numerous English protégés replicated and expanded Ovid‘s metatextual concerns by reading and rewriting his metamorphic poetry in light of the metaphors through which they understood both established networks of scribal dissemination and emergent modes of printed book production. My study of Greco-Roman tradition and English bibliofictions (or fictive representations of books, their life cycles, and the communication circuits in which they operate) melds literary analysis with the theoretical concerns of book history by focusing on intersections and interactions between physical, metaphorical, and imaginary books. I posit the Tudor book as a site of complex cultural and literary negotiations between real and inscribed, historical and fictional readers, editors, commentators, and authors, and, as my discussion unfolds, I combine bibliographical, historical, and literary perspectives as a means to understanding both the reception of Ovidian poetry in English literature and Ovid‘s place in the history of books. This dissertation thus contributes to a growing body of book history criticism while also modeling a bibliographically enriched approach to the study of late medieval and Renaissance intertextuality.